"We Love Death More…"

The tactics of Israel's enemies

Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of carrying out a “war of genocide” in Gaza in 2014 and has sought to use the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders for alleged war crimes. [1]

We are likely to hear the same charges emerging from Lebanon once Hezbollah provokes another war with Israel. The propaganda aired for Western consumption is that Israel is the aggressor, the bully raining death on innocent civilians; but to our faces, our enemies provoke us, threaten to exterminate us, and tell us that they love death more than we love life. [2, 3]

They fire at us from behind their children. They march civilians at gunpoint back into areas they know Israel has forewarned them of bombing. Their leaders do this precisely because they want large casualties. They use their own people as a sacrifice to the ascendancy of Islam and to gain world sympathy. They can do this because they do not value life as does the Judaeo-Christian world. In their eyes, the lives of their children are expendable for the higher goal of destroying the “enemy.”

The Middle East is replete with examples of callousness and cruelty, not only toward their enemies but also to their own. Just a few illustrations should demonstrate this fact. In 1982 the Syrian government put down an uprising in which upward of 40,000 Syrians were killed, allegedly using chemical weapons in what was characterized as one of “the single deadliest acts by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East." [4] Since the 2012 Arab Spring uprising there have been multiple documented instances of the Syrian government targeting rebels with chlorine and Sarin gas. [5]

In the 1988 Halabja massacre, Saddam Hussein ordered a gas attack on the Iraqi Kurdish population, which resulted in the deaths of 3,200 to 5,000 civilians and injury of up to 10,000. [6] During the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, over 750,000 Iranians died, including 50,000 from chemical warfare. There were multiple news reports documenting Iran’s use of child soldiers, aged twelve to seventeen, who were sent “weaponless into battle against Iraqi armor. Often bound together with ropes in groups of twenty to prevent the faint-hearted from deserting, they hurl themselves on barbed wire or march into Iraqi minefields in the face of withering machine-gun fire to clear the way for Iranian tanks.” [7]

During the offensive against ISIS in Syria, the Turkish military has repeatedly attacked the Kurdish YPG militia, a member of the same coalition trying to liberate villages under ISIS control. [8]

In March 2017, Reuters reported that ISIS was rounding up civilians in Mosul. “The militant group has a long history of forcing civilians to serve as human shields—to ward off airstrikes. In recent weeks ISIS has reportedly been placing Mosul residents at military locations, secretly, and then inviting airstrikes…As many as 230 or even 520 civilians were killed in a catastrophic event at al-Jadida (New Mosul)…[on March 17]… They are trying to ensure that the coalition [of the US and allies] is condemned for their actions so that they can carry on." [9]

This is what the Palestinian leadership is also trying to perpetrate against Israel. In a February 2008 speech, member of Hamas and the Palestinian Legislative Council Fathi Hamad said, “[Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly, and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy, “We desire Death, as you desire Life.” [10] The reality has played out more like this: Israel would warn civilians to evacuate their homes to areas of safety before the IDF attacked the launching sites in the locations that were used to bomb Israeli civilians. The Hamas Ministry of the Interior would respond by appealing to civilians to disregard the warnings and remain. When they left anyway, Hamas escorted them back at gunpoint. [11]

During the 2014 Gaza conflict a Hamas Manual entitled “Urban Warfare” was found and published. It advocated the use of Gazan civilians as human shields. The manual noted that "the soldiers and commanders (of the IDF) must limit their use of weapons and tactics that lead to the harm and unnecessary loss of people and [destruction of] civilian facilities. It is difficult for them to get the most use out of their firearms, especially of supporting fire [e.g., artillery]… The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders." [12]

This logic explains the tactic of installing missile launchers in crowded neighborhoods and provoking an attack. Evidence for this was reported by two Indian journalists who had to wait until returning to India before they could safely release a video shot from their hotel room of Hamas operatives setting up a missile launcher and launching missiles to provoke an IDF response in this heavily populated area. [13]

A report was filed on July 12, 2006, as follows:

The Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon have purposely hidden themselves and stockpiled their missiles in residential areas, thus endangering the surrounding populations. Indeed, many of the missiles recently fired at Israel were stored and launched from or near private homes, commandeered by Hizbullah terrorists wishing to shield their actions behind civilians in order to thwart Israel’s response. [14]

Hezbollah currently is reported to have 100,000 missiles and advanced weaponry from Iran aimed at Israel. “Hezbollah’s advanced weapons and the systems needed to launch them reportedly are embedded across a staggering 10,000 locations in the heart of more than two hundred civilian towns and villages… Hezbollah reportedly went so far as offering reduced-price housing to Shiite families who allowed the terrorist group to store rocket launchers in their homes.” [15]

Whether it be Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, or Hezbollah, they all subscribe to the Muslim tactic of taqiya: deceiving the world to advance the goals of Islam. [16] The scenario goes like this: Arabs provoke Israel by abducting and murdering three teenage students and firing missiles into population centers, as they did in 2014. When Israel retaliates and strikes missile sites embedded in civilian communities they cynically use this to portray the IDF as committing genocide. Then they approach the ICC to condemn Israel and declare Israeli officials as war criminals.

Please pray that the LORD protects and defends Israel and that the lies disseminated by her enemies are exposed to and repudiated by the world.

About the Author: Reuven Glasser is a guest contributor to First Fruits of Zion. He served as a cantor and leader in Messianic Jewish congregations in the United States before making aliyah to Israel in 2010. He currently resides in the Jerusalem area with his family where he works in the medical field. He has a passion for Messiah, Israel, and the Jewish people.
More articles by Reuven Glasser

Share this Story

Spring 2018

Join us for a unique and unforgettable journey through the land of Israel. You will be amazed and delighted at the modernity of the country as we experience post-1900s sites. This is your opportunity to truly touch the physical land and attach to her people.